


By Day & By Night

by AlexandraO



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Familiars, Gen, Hermione Granger-centric, Poaching, Unicorns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:54:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21757864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexandraO/pseuds/AlexandraO
Summary: By day, Hermione Granger works for the rights of creatures in the Ministry of Magic, by night, she rides her trusty familiar, saving the most pure of animals.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 29





	By Day & By Night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HeartOfAspen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeartOfAspen/gifts).



> This story was written for the lovely HeartOfAspen for the holiday season! (and I can probably consider it a belated wedding gift as well as a THANK YOU for being an amazing alpha). It has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays, but everything to do with unicorns as requested. This is my first foray into a story that is character centered rather than focused on a relationship—I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> Beta credit to The Muse of Apollo.

The moon was full and bright above the treeline, lighting the small and overgrown path. Gripping onto the long white hair of her familiar, Hermione leaned forward and encouraged her trusty steed to move faster with several clicks of her tongue and a dig of her heels. 

Roshan’s long legs lengthened, her muscle’s rippling as the animal pushed herself. Not caring that the hood of her cloak had fallen and her brunette curls were now exposed, Hermione kept her head forward, focused on their destination. 

Within minutes, they approached the water’s edge before backing up into the brush for cover. When Roshan came to a stop, Hermione threw her hood back up on her head and squinted as she looked at her surroundings. To her left, a large boat was docked, looming and ominous. It had no markings, making it almost impossible to identify. She would have been at a loss if it wasn’t for the pictures that had been placed on her desk earlier that week giving her information on the poachers. 

Roshan snorted as a person came into view, walking away from the ship, toward the woods. She couldn’t get a clear view of their features from the distance between them, but by the way the others followed him off the ship, she could almost guarantee that he was the leader. 

“Shh, girl,” Hermione said, comforting her familiar with a pat on the head. As a unicorn, she had heightened senses and was rather intelligent. It wasn’t beyond her realm of understanding to know that these men were up to no good. “We’ll get them—patience.” 

Hermione watched from within the shadows as the men disappeared into the forest. Hermione quietly clicked her tongue and pulled back on the reigns slightly to move Roshan forward. They crept through the brush, toward the poachers who had gotten off the ship.

As the forest was known for being the home for several magical creatures including unicorns, Hermione could guarantee that they weren’t here for a midnight stroll. It was likely they had set up traps and were here to collect their bounty. She just hoped she wasn’t too late. 

Finally, Roshan stopped and Hermione could barely see the poachers in the dark, but she could hear them laughing maniacally. Roshan stepped forward onto a branch and it snapped, a loud gunshop type sound echoing through the forest.

“What was that?” one of the men asked, drawing his wand and looking around frantically.

Another man waved him off. “It was probably nothing, all kinds of creatures live in these woods. Calm down.” 

The man looked around once more before sheathing his wand back in his holster on his leg. Hermione ran her fingers through Roshan’s hair in an attempt to calm her and keep her still. “Shh, girl, we’ll get them.” 

Hermione quietly moved through the brush as the men did as well. Once they reached the middle of the forest, Hermione couldn’t hold in a gasp despite her years of stealth training. 

The same man whipped out his wand and looked around. “Boss, there’s something out there, and it ain’t no animal. I heard it.” 

Hermione kept her hand over her mouth and calmed her breathing. There was a unicorn lying in a trap on the forest floor, struggling to get loose. Blood was pouring from the leg that was caught and it was whimpering in pain. It was becoming increasingly more difficult as the moments passed to keep Roshan calm as one of her kin lay dying a slow and painful death on the forest floor. It was in her nature to cause a ruckus—to hurt those who did this to the unicorn and to save the other if at all possible. 

Hermione continued to comfort Roshan, running her fingers through the unicorns white locks. “Girl, we’ll get them, we’ll get them.” 

“Will you now?” a voice said by her side. A wand was now pointed into her chest and she breathed a sigh in annoyance, mainly at herself for getting caught. When she turned to her right, another pressed a wand into her cheek quite painfully. 

Hermione put her hands in her hair, her wand safely tucked into a holster underneath her robes. They likely wouldn’t go searching for it as long as she went peacefully. 

“Get down,” one of the men said, pointing to the ground. Hermione threw her leg over the side of Roshan and jumped to the ground. 

“I reckon the cap’n would like to speak with you. Move.” He moved to walk in front of her with one hand on the reigns of Roshan while the other man continued to hold her at wand point, pressing the piece of wood into her back. 

Roshan whined while she walked next to Hermione. She carefully lowered a hand to pat the back of her trusty familiar in comfort. “It’s alright girl.” 

“You keep thinking that,” the man behind her mumbled. 

Hermione just rolled her eyes and started formulating a plan in her mind. She was trained in hand to hand combat and with the help of Roshan, she knew she could take these men by surprise. 

Within a few more minutes, Hermione was standing in front of the man she knew to be the captain. 

“Who’re you?” The man asked, spit flying into her face. 

Hermione made a disgusted sound as she brought a hand up to wipe off the spit. “I’d like to ask you the same question,  _ poacher _ .” She spit the title like venom and the man took is just about as well as she expected. 

He stepped closer, his toes stepping a bit on hers as he got in her face. “Listen here, little girl—” 

“—I’d stop right there if I were you. I could throw your arse in Azkaban, never to see the light of day again.” 

The man narrowed his eyes. “Who’re you?” 

As the man went to take the hood off her head, Hermione yelled, “Now!” Her familiar bucked out of one of the poacher’s hands and came up on her back legs. One hoof hit the man’s chest, the other knocking him in the head. He fell to the ground and didn’t get back up. 

Hermione took the time where the leader was distracted to cast a wandless stunning spell, sending him stumbling into the other poacher. When they were both distracted, Hermione drew her wand, sending binding spells at their feet, including the man who was already unconscious on the ground. 

“Accio!” Hermione called, focusing on their wands. Three wands flew into her hand and she tucked them into her pockets. She quickly walked over to Roshan to make sure she was okay. After looking her over quickly, Hermione ran over the unicorn that was still struggling in the trap. 

With her wand, Hermione opened the trap and the unicorn finally relaxed. She laid a hand on the creature’s chest and found that it’s breathing was labored—if she didn’t do something and fast, the unicorn would die. 

“Roshan!” Her familiar came trotting over and Hermione dug in the bag on the side of Roshan. 

Pulling out a bottle of ditany made specially for magical creatures, and a blood replenishing potion, Hermione bent down to the hurting creature. Hermione uncorked the blood replenishing potion and poured it down the unicorn’s throat. 

Then she moved to the creature’s injured leg and first cleansed the wound with a sterilized water charm before pouring several drops of dittany over it. The animal whined a bit as the dittany did it’s work, but Hermione was relieved to see the wound stitching itself together, healing. 

While the potions did their work and the animals’ cries lessened, Hermione sent a patronus to her partner in the Department for the Regulation Magical Creatures. 

“Injured unicorn, poachers, bring Aurors to Blainnmont Timberland,” she rambled off, sending her otter patronus on its way. 

Roshan layed on the ground next to the injured unicorn as Hermione stroked it’s hair in comfort. She had finally stopped whimpering completely and her breathing had evened out. It wasn’t long, perhaps minutes before her partner, Delia, arrived with the Aurors. She had also brought reinforcements from a rehabilitation center to safely transport the unicorn. It needed to be rehabilitated before being released back into the wild. 

“Thanks for coming so quickly, Delia. I appreciate it.” 

Delia stood with her hands on her hips. “How could you come here alone? There were three of them, perhaps more on that godforsaken ship. You could have been killed!” 

Hermione just smiled at her partner. “I got a last minute tip, so I decided to go for it. I didn’t want to bother you.” 

“Well, next time, bother me!” Delia walked over to Hermione and gave her a quick hug. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.” She looked toward the Aurors, apparating away with the poachers. “Have you told them about the ship?” 

Hermione shook her head. “Hey, Thomas!” The man she had spent seven years with in Gryffindor looked at her. “There’s a ship out there probably with even more evidence and perhaps more poachers if you’re up for it.” 

The man smirked at her. “You know me so well, we’ll get a team out there. You know you’ll have to come by and sign some paperwork on Monday.” 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Thomas,” Hermione said, laughing. “You just want to see me.” 

The man shrugged and walked away, passing off one of the poachers to his partner. In the next ten minutes, things moved very quickly and when everyone else disapparated, Hermione walked back over to Roshan who was waiting patiently. 

She patted her familiar on the head and ran her fingers through her long white hair. “You did good tonight, girl, I wouldn’t be able to do this without you.” The unicorn neighed and pushed her head into Hermione’s hand. 

Hermione laughed and gave one last pat on the creature’s head before jumping into the saddle on her back. 

“Let’s go home, girl.” 

Roshan didn’t need another command and took off at full speed through the woods, diving in and out of trees. Hermione relaxed knowing she knew where to go, just enjoying that they saved another innocent creature from a terrible fate. All was well...well, for tonight at least. 

_**End** _


End file.
